JP2002274606A - Automated storage and retrieval system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an automated storage and retrieval system to transfer any object from an input conveyor 14 to a pallet 22 on an input station 12, transport it using a stacker crane 6, and at discharge, transfer the object from the pallet on a discharge station to a discharge conveyor. SOLUTION: The automated storage and retrieval system is configured so that many pieces of objects can be transferred between the input conveyor and/or discharge conveyor and the stations while the specified sequence is maintained, so that it is possible to store and retrieve the objects in a lump.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic warehouse which can store and retrieve a large number of articles at once.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an automatic warehouse, articles are automatically transported between a station and a rack by a transport device such as a stacker crane. The unit for storing articles in the automatic warehouse is, for example, a pallet. A plurality of articles are stacked on a pallet, stored in, and unloaded from the pallet that has been unloaded. When loading and unloading a large amount of articles, it is necessary to speed up the loading and unloading of articles from the pallet.

[0003]

A basic object of the present invention is to enable a large number of articles to be efficiently put in and taken out of an automatic warehouse (claim 1). It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a specific structure of a transfer means for transferring articles between a pallet and a conveyor on a station. An additional object of the third aspect of the present invention is to increase the number of articles placed per pallet.

[0004]

According to the present invention, there is provided an automatic warehouse in which a pallet for mounting a plurality of articles is provided and stored in a rack, and the pallet is transported between a rack and a station by a transport device. A conveyor is connected to the station, and a transfer means for transferring a plurality of articles collectively between the station and the conveyor is provided (claim 1).

[0005] Preferably, the conveyor is provided so as to be parallel to the station and in contact with the longitudinal direction thereof, and the transfer means is provided so that a plurality of articles are collectively transferred between the conveyor and a pallet on the station. It is configured to slide (claim 2).

Preferably, the articles are placed on the pallet in a plurality of rows and a plurality of the articles in each row.
Further, an operation stroke of the transfer means is provided to be switchable to a plurality of types according to the plurality of rows (claim 3).

[0007]

According to the present invention, a plurality of articles are placed on a pallet, and are conveyed between a rack and a station by a conveying device. Then, a conveyor is connected to the station, and a plurality of articles are collectively transferred between the station and the conveyor by the transfer means. Therefore, there is no need to manually load articles on the pallet or pick one article from the pallet one at a time, and a large amount of articles can be stored and unloaded at high speed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, a conveyor is provided in parallel with the longitudinal direction of the station, and a plurality of articles are slid by the transfer means, and are transferred between the conveyor and the pallet on the station. Therefore, compared with the case of transferring using vacuum suction or the like, the article can be easily transferred, and even if there is some disturbance in the position of the article, the article can be easily transferred.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, articles are placed on the pallet in a plurality of rows and a plurality of articles are placed on each row, and the operation stroke of the transfer means can be switched to a plurality of types. Even in the case of placing, articles can be transferred one row at a time between the conveyor and the pallet.

[0010]

1 to 6 show an automatic warehouse 2 according to an embodiment and a modification thereof. In these figures, 4 is a rack, 6 is a stacker crane, 7 is a traveling rail, 8 is a delivery station, and 10 is a delivery conveyor. In addition, reference numeral 12 shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 denotes a storage station, and reference numeral 14 denotes a storage conveyor.

A pair of racks 4 and 4 are provided on both sides of the traveling rail 7 of the stacker crane 6 to constitute an automatic warehouse unit. In the embodiment, the automatic warehouse 2 is constituted by a plurality of automatic warehouse units. Further, the retrieval station 8 and the retrieval station 12 are provided separately, but may be switched between the retrieval operation and the retrieval operation as a station that is also used for retrieval and retrieval. In such a case, the conveyor 10 is also used for loading and unloading,
Switch between using the station for entry or exit. Further, the stations 8, 12 and the conveyor 10,
Because it takes time to transfer the goods between 14 and
Preferably, on both sides of the running rail 7, the storage station 1
A pair of storage stations 2 and 12 and delivery stations 8 and 8 are provided to face each other.

FIG. 3 shows the connection between the storage station 12 and the storage conveyor 14, and FIG. 4 shows the connection between the storage station 8 and the storage conveyor 10. As described above, the pair of receiving stations 12, 12 and the pair of unloading stations 8,
A plurality of pallets, here two pallets, are stored on one shelf of the rack 4, and articles are placed on each pallet 22, for example, in units of 5 × 2 rows of 10 pallets. Then, the stacker crane 6 transports the pallets 22 between the stations 8 and 12 and the rack 4. The transfer means such as the slide fork of the stacker crane 6 can switch between a plurality of stages (here, two stages) with a long and short operation stroke. For this reason, the stacker crane 6
The pallet 22 can be transferred at a position at the back of the shelf of the rack 4 or at a position at the front.

In the receiving conveyor 14, the articles are conveyed in a row of 10 pieces, transferred to the pallet 22 so as not to disturb the order, and transferred from the pallet 22 to the outgoing conveyor 10 in the original order. Rack 4 is 2 of pallets 22
Stations 8 and 12 are pallets 22
And the conveyors 10 and 14 are pallet 2
Since the width is smaller than 2, the transfer device installation space 29 can be provided outside the conveyors 10 and 14. Note that the numbers given to the articles in FIGS. 3 and 4 are the article numbers.

FIG. 5 shows that the elevator 1 of the stacker crane 6 is moved from the storage conveyor 14 through the storage station 12.
6 schematically shows the transfer of an article to No. 6. Reference numeral 18 denotes a slide fork, reference numeral 20 denotes a mast, and reference numeral 24 denotes an article, which is placed on a pallet 22 in a plurality of rows of 5 × 2 rows. 26 is a transfer device, 28 is its frame,
The pusher 30 is installed in the transfer device installation space 29, and the pusher 30 is moved up and down by the lifting drive unit 32 between a height at which the article 24 is pushed out and a height at which the article 24 passes without interfering on the article 24. In addition, the lifting drive unit 32 includes the traveling guide 3.
3 along the location on conveyor 14 and station 1
Reciprocate between the two upper positions. The transfer device 26 of FIG.
For example, in this case, the pusher 30 may be made to stand by at a position indicated by a chain line in FIG. 5 and the articles may be pushed out of the pallet on the station toward the delivery conveyor.

The operation at the time of storage will be described. The stacker crane 6 transports an empty pallet 22 on the outward path to the storage station 12, transfers the pallet 22 to the storage station 12, and mounts the pallet 22 on which articles 24 are stacked. And transport it to the rack on the return path. At the storage station 12, during the cycle time of the stacker crane 6, the articles on the storage conveyor 14 are slid to the predetermined position on the pallet 22 twice by the pusher 30 twice at a time.
For example, two rows are stacked on top. Since the pair of storage stations 12 and 12 are provided to face each other, the pallet 22 may be loaded from the storage conveyor during the cycle time of the stacker crane.

The same applies to the operation at the time of unloading. The stacker crane 6 transfers the pallets on which articles to be unloaded are loaded on the outward route to the unloading station, receives the empty pallets, and transports the empty pallets to the entry station or the rack on the return route. I do.
And during the cycle time of the stacker crane 6,
At the unloading station, from the pallet to the unloading conveyor,
The articles are transferred twice in five steps.

When the pusher 30 shown in FIG. 5 is used in the storage station, the function of the pusher 30 is to slide the articles on the storage conveyor 14 onto the pallet 22,
That is, the target position to be slid up is changed between the first row and the second row. In the case of the retrieval station, it is necessary that the articles on the pallet 22 be slid one row at a time to the retrieval conveyor and that the articles can pass above the articles without interfering with the articles. Although the elevation drive unit 32 is provided to pass above the article, the pusher 40 is moved by using the swing drive unit 42 to move the pusher 40 in the vertical direction with respect to the state of the chain line on the right side in FIG. It may be swung between the facing state. 6, reference numeral 36 denotes a new transfer device, reference numeral 40 denotes a new pusher, reference numeral 42 denotes a swing drive unit, and the other points are the same as those of the transfer device 26 of FIG. The transfer device 36 in FIG. 6 can also be used for both the receiving station and the leaving station. Alternatively, the articles may be picked up and transferred between the conveyor and the station, for example, but the transfer device becomes large, and if the position of the articles on the conveyor or the pallet varies, the transfer may occur. It becomes difficult.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a layout of an automatic warehouse according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing the layout of the automatic warehouse according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a connection between a receiving station and a receiving conveyor in the automatic warehouse according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a connection between a delivery station and a delivery conveyor in the automatic warehouse according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the transfer of articles from a receiving conveyor to a receiving station in the automatic warehouse according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a view showing the transfer of articles from a delivery station to a delivery conveyor in an automatic warehouse according to a modified example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Automatic Warehouse 4 Rack 6 Stacker Crane 7 Traveling Rail 8 Outbound Station 10 Outbound Conveyor 12 Inbound Station 14 Inbound Conveyor 16 Elevating Table 18 Slide Fork 20 Mast 22 Pallet 24 Article 26,36 Transferring Device 28 Frame 29 Transferring Device Installation Space 30 , 40 pusher 32 elevating drive unit 33 travel guide 42 swing drive unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An automatic warehouse, in which pallets for placing a plurality of articles thereon are provided and stored in a rack, and the pallets are transported between a rack and a station by a transport device. And connect
An automatic warehouse, further comprising a transfer means for transferring a plurality of articles collectively between a station and a conveyor. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the conveyor is provided so as to be parallel to and in contact with the station in a longitudinal direction thereof, and the transfer means slides a plurality of articles at a time between the conveyor and a pallet on the station. The automatic warehouse according to claim 1, wherein the automatic warehouse is configured to be operated. 3. The article is placed on the pallet in a plurality of rows and in a plurality of rows, and the operation stroke of the transfer means is switched to a plurality of types according to the plurality of rows. 3. The automatic warehouse according to claim 1, wherein the automatic warehouse is provided.